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tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption
CHAIN -- Whataburger It's 7:15am on the Fourth of July, but I don't know this...until the counter guy at Whataburger, who has wandered to my table, says "You're up awful early for the Fourth of July." "Oh yeah, it is the Fourth, isn't it," I say. He goes into a conversation about how he'd usually be getting off work now, but for some reason got put onto the day shift, so he'll get off at three, so he'll get to go watch the fireworks or something. Then he goes outside where everybody else who works here is hanging out. Why not...Nobody else but me is there, and I have my food. They're all still out there when I leave. One of the other employees in the lot actually sticks his hand out to shake mine and says "You have a happy Fourth of July!" "You do the same," I say, shaking his hand. "He didn't even know it WAS the Fourth of July," says the counter guy. "WHAT?!?" "It's true. I didn't." That's my cue to leave, I think. Those darn Texans. Everything has to be bigger. It's all about the size. In an era where everybody was copying the McDonald's 15-cent hamburger format, Whataburger founder Harmon Dobson debuted his burger on a five-inch bun with a quarter-pound patty. Dobson figured the bigger bun and patty would make Texans exclaim "What a burger!" His original stand, a portable design (apparently Dobson's original model was to have a portable location so he could move as needed with the traffic flow), opened in Corpus Christi in 1950 with 25 cent Whataburgers (changed to 30 cents, with apologies, a year later) and was an immediate hit. The first franchise opened in 1953. The first location outside of Texas opened in 1959 (Pensacola, FL). Whataburger became known for their orange-striped A-frame buildings in the 1960's, the first opening in 1961, based on an idea Dobson had sketched out on a napkin. The center of Whataburger's "Flying W" logo represents the A-frame. Potato chips were replaced by fries for the first time in 1962. Dobson, a pilot with a love for flying, died in a plane crash in 1967. The family carried on. Growth continued throughout the South and, like a lot of chains, got out of hand. Whataburger entered and exited markets like Denver and Las Vegas. A revolving door of menu items and declining sales hurt the chain throughout the eighties before Dobson's son Tom took the title of CEO in 1993. The chain refocused, remodeled aging stores, pared down the menu, and got back on track. Today, Whataburger boasts nearly 700 locations, all but a hundred or so being in Texas. Florida is the second most populated state. Whataburger's expansion plans include filling gaps along the interstates in between. The chain is still privately held by the Dobson family. In 2008, it was announced the chain was moving headquarters from Corpus Christi to San Antonio for better ease of travel, cost-effective office space, and less hurricane exposure. Poor Corpus Christi. The menu includes the usual suspects...Burgers (the Whataburger, double Whataburger, triple Whataburger, Whataburger Jr and the poor little Justaburger), chicken sandwiches and strips, fries, onion rings, and a salad or two. Breakfast sandwiches include some on biscuits, buns, and some breakfast burritos that are called Taquitos. More about that later. Whataburger cooks to order. Place your order at the counter, sit down, play video games on your phone, and the food will come to you by a (hopefully) friendly employee also toting a car hop tray full of ketchup packets, extra napkins, and other potential dining room essentials. The drive-thru is open 24 hours (actually, I guess at least some locations have 24 hour dining rooms too most nights of the week) with breakfast available from 11pm to 11am. The full lunch/dinner menu is available during breakfast hours, just the way God intended. The Whataburger itself is a plain (no sesame seeds) five-inch bun and patty topped with lettuce, tomato, diced onion, pickles, and mustard. No ketchup, no mayo. That's a Texas quirk, and may explain why Whataburger didn't do so well in further removed states. If you aren't close to a Whataburger but are close to a Sonic Drive-In, get a Sonic No. 2 hamburger (called "Mustard Style" in markets where using numbers confuses dumb patrons). The Whataburger is pretty much the same thing except bigger. How GOOD your Whataburger is will depend on the freshness of the ingredients...particularly the bun...and the quality of the staff. I've had some wonderful Whataburgers and some that tasted warmed over. On one occasion, it took 26 minutes for me to receive my order. I can assure you that one had been sitting awhile. When you find a Whataburger location you like, stick with it. One of Whataburger's claims to fame is your ability to customize your Whataburger. The most popular add-on is jalapenos. Ketchup is available too if you must. Back to the breakfast taquitos...See, the thing is, they aren't taquitos. A taquito by my definition is a corn tortilla stuffed, rolled, and deep fried. The Whataburger "taquito" is a flour tortilla stuffed, rolled, and maybe steamed. It's a breakfast burrito. It's good, certainly worth eating, but it's not a taquito. Naturally, they're very popular. What else? The chicken strips, served with Texas toast and white gravy, are average. The Whatacatch fish sandwich is good, one of the better by my taste. Fries, not so good. But the onion rings...well these are just wonderful. These battered wonders are light, greasy, and have a flavor I just recently figured out...They have a similar aftertaste to pancakes. I'm thinking they're battered in pancake batter. The onion rings are worth the trip themselves. They are...oddly enough...the only onion rings I will dip in ketchup. Whataburger also makes a wonderful milkshake. Whataburgers of the post A-frame era have a roof that kind of remind one of Stuckey's. Sadly uninspired. The newest store design uses a largely generic flat roof design with an A-frame tribute over the entrance. There's maybe a couple dozen full-blown A-frames still in existence today, usually with an addition up front to accomodate indoor seating. Whataburger has grown on me over the years. There are nights I'm sorry I'm too far away to just wander in one and get a late night snack, where a bored staffer will invite themself to sit at my table and start up a conversation about something completely random. There's a certain charm to that, or maybe it's a sign of the area culture. I don't know. Whataburger is a much loved heritage chain that probably doesn't have a lot to offer to new markets already over saturated with entrenched competitors. Texas and the South will always love their Whataburgers. If they threw one up in Minneapolis, it'd probably just get lost in the shuffle.
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